Legal Services Board
Legal ServicesEngland, United Kingdom11-50 Employees
The Legal Services Board (LSB) is the independent body responsible for overseeing the regulation of lawyers in England and Wales. It is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. Its costs are met entirely by a levy on the approved regulators of the legal profession. The LSB is both politically and financially independent of Government. The LSB was created by the Legal Services Act 2007 with a statutory mandate to deliver eight regulatory objectives including ensuring that regulation in the legal services sector is carried out in the public interest; and that the interests of the consumers of legal services are put at the heart of the legal system in England and Wales. The LSB became fully active on 1 January 2010, when the new regulatory regime was activated by statute. Current Board and executive: Chair: Dr Helen Phillips (Chair June 2018 – present, lay-member 2015 – present, interim chair May 2017 - June 2018) Chief Executive: Matthew Hill (August 2019- present) Catherine Brown (lay-member, 2019- present) Jemima Coleman (non-lay member, 2016 – present) David Eveleigh (non- lay member, 2014 – present) Marina Gibbs (lay-member, 2014 – present) Ian Hamer OBE (non-lay member, 2019 - present) Michael Smyth CBE QC (Hon) (non-lay member, 2016 – present) Catharine Seddon (lay-member 2016 – present) The LSB is responsible for appointing the Legal Services Consumer Panel as well as the Office for Legal Complaints, the body responsible for overseeing the Legal Ombudsman scheme.